Ivory Shadows
by AznTigress
Summary: A worrisome disappearance leads Huohu Wang to a deserted estate within the mountains of northern China. Armed with an antique camera and his returned sixth sense, Huohu seeks to unravel the mysteries of this haunted place.
1. Chapter 1

"I think we should split up."

Twenty- year -old Huohu Wang couldn't believe his ears. His girlfriend of 6 years whom he loved with all his heart was breaking up with him just out of the blue. He brushes a hand through his neck-length brown hair in utter disbelief, not knowing why the woman would make such a drastic decision.

"What?" was all he was able to muster up in his shock. Within the mist of confusion clouding his mind, he struggles furiously to understand what went wrong as his face remains unchanged from its surprised state.

"It's just not working out," she tells him monotonously.

"How?" choked Huohu, a mixture of anger and sadness mingling within his heart. In his left hand, he clutches a silver ring so tightly it was embedding its etchings into the palm of his hand. It was the one reason why he had wanted to see her tonight, the one thing that was going to change their lives forever. He didn't realize that she also had a reason to meet him tonight. Someone was supposed to be surprised tonight and it wasn't supposed to be him.

"I'm sorry," the woman spoke as short black strands of her hair fell over her eyes. "You'll find someone better."

"How can I find someone better when I already found the best?" Huohu utters quietly, hanging his head.

Ling Li forces a tiny smile upon her petite face in a wasted effort to cheer him up. She then puts her hands in the pockets of her jean pants in order to keep herself from touching him.

Looking into her eyes, Huohu could tell there was something more to her sudden decision. He could feel the immense heat in his chest as he fights back tears.

"But we've been together for so long," he exclaims, trying to keep himself from yelling. He looks up at her with pain in his eyes. "I wanted to give—"

"STOP!"

Ling turns around as soon as she saw him bring up his fisted left hand. Now it was her turn to fight back tears.

"Please… don't…" she begs pleadingly, her back still turned to him. Quietly, she spoke. "You don't… understand…"

"Why are you doing this?" Huohu asks desperately. "What went wrong? _What's_ wrong?"

Turning around, Ling pulls her jade bead bracelet off her left hand and puts it in his free hand. Closing his fingers around it, she grasps his new fist with her hands and looks down.

"I don't know if I'll come back," she whispers inaudibly.

"What?"

Ling releases her hold on his hand and slowly backs away; the meek smile still on her face though her sorrowful eyes betray her.

"Goodbye…"

**CHAPTER 1**

Opening his eyes, Huohu was greeted by the warm rays of the sun peeking through the blinds of his bedroom. Groaning, he rolls over and looks at his alarm clock.

4:06

_Why can't I sleep?_ he wonders to himself as he lies in his bed and stares up at the white ceiling above him. He hasn't been able to sleep well for a whole month.

Not since… the breakup.

_Dang it. _

Huohu rolls on his side, clutching the pillow and forcing his eyes shut in hopes he would fall back to sleep. Moments later, he sighs exasperatedly as soon as he finds he couldn't and decides to give up. Rolling back onto his back, Huohu stares up at the ceiling once again. His mind is a swirling soup of questions and answers to explain the sudden change in his girlfriend.

No, he refuses to refer to her as his ex-girlfriend. Somewhere, down in the deepest recesses of his heart, the breakup was not a choice she wanted to make. She had to break up with him. But why? The reason had to be something big, something dangerous that affected them both. There was no reason for Ling to leave him. They were everything to each other.

_Blackmail?_

But who? And for what? Huohu can't think of anyone who would possibly want to hurt either him or Ling. They weren't widely known, but they weren't unknown either. Huohu is a journalist for a high-end Beijing news company and Ling provides photos for him as a photographer. Ling had a thing for hands-on stuff so art had always been her calling. Her drawings were what drew Huohu to him. He couldn't draw to save his life, but he could write like nobody's business. His expressed his creativity though his literature, having finished a novella and was halfway through his second while in high school.

He and Ling met in the United States and went to the same high school. Despite Mandarin Chinese being his native language, his English was as good as any native speaker. Many times, he was mistaken as a U.S. citizen because his English was so good despite the medium Chinese accent that coated his words. Ling had began learning English when she was still a child in China so she was able to speak about as well as Huohu could, although with a much heavier accent. She didn't think much of it as she much preferred to read and write in her native language. Unlike many others, Ling can remember traditional characters better than simplified. She abhorred simplified characters so much that she made it her mission to learn traditional characters and only traditional characters. This made things very difficult for her on the mainland as much of China had adopted the use of simplified characters in everyday text.

Rolling over on his other side, Huohu glances over at his alarm clock.

4:32

Had he been lying in bed for that long? It seemed less than what he thought.

With a final stretch, Huohu finally decides to get out of bed. Sitting on the mattress with his feet on the floor, he looks over at his nightstand at the framed photo sitting behind the alarm clock. It was a picture of him and Ling standing nonchalantly at a convention in America. It was the first time he ever saw her smile and they were together ever since.

Until a month ago.

Huohu rubs the sleep out of his eyes and heads for the bathroom to wash up. He didn't have work until 10:00 so he was at a loss for what to do for six hours. As he brushes his teeth, something big and furry came in and began sniffing his feet. Unalarmed, Huohu looks down to see the face of his Pekingese mix gazing up at him with his little pink tongue lolling out of his pressed muzzle.

"Hungry, I suppose?" spoke Huohu after spitting out the mixture of toothpaste and saliva that was gathering up in his mouth.

The dog sneezes on his feet and looks back up at the man.

"Thanks," mutters Huohu, wiping his feet with some toilet paper as the dog playfully tries to rip it out of his hand.

"Xiao'xin, go find your ball," Huohu commanded and he watches as the dog speeds out of the bathroom into the apartment to look for his beloved toy.

Smiling, Huohu reaches for his face towel to clean off the toothpaste still on his face. He is grateful that the canine was well-trained and housebroken. When he had moved into his current one-bedroom apartment three years ago, he expressed to Ling how he was going to feel lonely living all by himself. At the time, it was meant as an invitation for her to come live with him. He totally did not expect her to go and buy a puppy for him, although she did make sure he was apartment-friendly. The last thing she wanted was for him to get grief from his neighbors about the dog misbehaving.

Walking out of the bathroom, Huohu heads for his closet to take out his outfit for the day: a dark red t-shirt and a pair of blue jeans. As he changed, he could feel the presence of Xiao'xin coming back into his bedroom with ball in mouth. As he pulled his pants on, Huohu began remembering how Ling had named the red puppy herself, stating that the reason she named him so was because of how Huohu was always telling her to be careful when she goes out in the field to photograph. People have looked at him funny whenever he takes Xiao'xin out for walks since it seemed as if he's constantly telling the dog to be careful when he was actually calling its name.

Ling…

He couldn't stop thinking about her ever since that night. In the past month, he had been unable to reach her via cell phone and she hadn't updated any of the social network sites they are on. She did have her own weblog which acts as her private diary, but she never applied any privacy restrictions on it since she never told anyone about. Since she didn't put any information about her on the weblog's profile page, she never had to worry about someone close to her reading it since they wouldn't know it was her. But Huohu knew her well, well enough to recognize her writing and its trademarks. She doesn't know that he knows about her weblog and it's a secret he's kept out of concern if anything should happen. A secret that was well-kept, for three nights ago, he checked her weblog to find that she had a new entry that spoke of her being tired of fighting and wanting to end everything. To anyone else, this would be a sign of suicidal intentions, but Huohu knew better. It meant something, but he didn't know what. Was she involved in something big and hiding it from him? Or did something happen that she didn't want him to know?

Taking a seat at the kitchen counter, he sighs deeply and rubs his face with both hands. All this thinking was driving him nuts. It was just as possible that she simply didn't love him anymore. Why can't he just accept that and just move on?

A tug at his ankle brings him back into reality and Huohu saunters over to the pantry to grab the bag of dog food sitting inside. With a glad growl, Xiao'xin watches as his food bowl was replenished and then went to work to empty it once again. Huohu just took out a box of cereal and began pouring some into a bowl as the sound of Xiao'xin's munching fills the air. Going to the fridge to get some soymilk, he suddenly hears the sound of knocking coming from the front door. Curious as to whom it could possibly be visiting him so early in the morning, Huohu shuts the refrigerator door gently and walks over to the door. Peering through the peephole, he could see the familiar face of Ling's beloved younger cousin, looking rather anxious than calm and collected like he usually is. An unsettling feeling formed in the pit of his stomach as Huohu unlocks the door.

"Tianchui?" he says questioningly, raising an eyebrow.

The spiky-haired young man steps quickly into the apartment and turns to face Huohu. Immediately, Xiao'xin was at his feet, sniffing up the guest.

"Huo," he began, his voice filled with concern. "You haven't by any chance seen or heard from Ling lately, have you?"

An extremely puzzled look overtook Huohu's face as he stares at the young man.

"How would I know?" he asks him.

Now it was Tianchui's turn to have a puzzled look on his face. "Wait, what? How… You're her boyfriend, so it's only natural I would ask you of all people."

_What?_ thought Huohu. Tianchui and Ling grew up together and were so close; they were practically joined at the hips. Ling's cousin is her best friend in the whole world; he's like a brother to her, the brother she never had as she had only sisters for siblings. There was almost nothing Ling knew that Tianchui didn't know, so it would only be natural that he would be the first one to know about the breakup. Seeing that he doesn't seem to have a clue only served to worry Huohu even more.

"Ling… didn't tell you?" he says in confusion.

"Tell me what?" wonders Tianchui as he prepares to hear something shocking.

"Ling… she broke up with me a month ago," Huohu answers sadly, closing his eyes.

A dead silence filled the room as the two men stood and looked at one another. Tianchui's mouth gaped open while Xiao'xin sits down and gazes up at him with curiosity in his eyes.

"What, why, she didn't tell me anything," stuttered Tianchui. "Why didn't she tell me?"

"That is a _very_ good question," articulated Huohu, crossing his arms. This was a troubling development in addition to Ling's mysterious weblog entry. "When was the last time you talked or spoke to her?"

"I saw her last week," answered Tianchui. "I left to visit my brother in Hong Kong and she was gone when I came back. The apartment seemed as it's been untouched since I left."

_Right, Tianchui shares a two-bedroom apartment with Ling_, thought Huohu.

"It was really creepy for some reason," noted Tianchui, hugging himself as he envisioned the state of the apartment upon his return. "I mean, I've been alone in the apartment before, but something felt different this time."

"Did Ling leave a message or anything?" questioned Huohu as Xiao'xin saunters over to the couch and hops up to get a better view of the two men.

"No," said Tianchui. "She always leaves a message on the fridge when she's gone, but I didn't find anything."

Scratching the back of his head, Tianchui goes over to the couch and sits down right next to Xiao'xin, who walks over and settles in his lap.

"It's weird," he continues, laying a hand on the dog's head. "Ling never closes the door to her room except when she's changing. But, for the past few months, she's kept the door closed almost all the time."

He begins scratching the dog's head.

"Whenever I ask her what she was doing, she just tells me she's researching. She always finds something to do when she's not working, you know? But, whatever she's been doing lately, I've been getting a bad feeling about it."

He looks over at Huohu. "What says you, Mr. Sixth Sense?"

"I don't have a sixth sense," affirmed Huohu, taking a seat in the armchair near the couch. Truth be told, Huohu had a latent sixth sense when he was a child, able to see things that no one else could. Eventually, he lost his sixth sense and any memories of that time have been long forgotten. He told Ling and Tianchui this once and that was when he was unceremoniously dubbed Mr. Sixth Sense. "But, I have been having a bad feeling ever since Ling broke up with me."

He looks over at the living room clock to see that it was 8:43.

"I have to go to work soon," he says, turning back to Tianchui. "If you find out anything about Ling, could you let me know?"

"Actually…" began the younger man as he held Xiao'xin close. "Could I stay here for a while? I don't feel comfortable going back to the apartment by myself."

"… Sure," Huohu replies as he grabs his keys off the coffee table. "And while you're here, you could finish the bowl of cereal on the counter for me."

Opening the door, Huohu was about to step out when a thought occurred to him.

"Hey, Tianchui," he exclaims without looking back. "After I get back, let's go over to your place."

There was a moment of silence as he could tell Tianchui was contemplating the prospect of returning to what was once his sanctuary.

"… Okay."

Nodding in response, Huohu went out and locked the door behind him.


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER 2**

Getting to work wasn't too hard for Huohu as he pedaled his black bicycle through the streets of the city. By car, it would've taken him fifteen minutes, but his car broke down about a week ago so he had to dust off the old yet sturdy piece of metal. It wasn't so bad as he admitted that he need to start working out again. Ling had tried to convince him to join her in kung fu, but he felt that tai chi was more his cup of tea. In addition, he wasn't the type to get unnecessarily confrontational with people, unlike Ling who wouldn't hesitate to break a bone or two when the situation arises.

Thinking back on it, Huohu doesn't really know much about Ling's past other than what she tells him. She doesn't get along with either of her parents, whom she admits should've gotten a divorce a long time ago but for some reason decided to stay together despite conflicting views. She has an older and a younger sister so she knows very well what it's like to be an older sibling and a younger sibling all at once. From what he could tell from their conversations, she cared more about Tianchui than her immediate family. He never did pursue the matter as he always felt that she didn't want to talk about it, she didn't have to. He wonders if that was a bad decision on his behalf. After all, they've been together for 6 long years; they should be able to plot out each other's pedigree by now.

Suddenly, something appears out of the corner of his eye. Huohu nearly flipped over his bicycle as he suddenly braked right before hitting a sedan in front of him. Scanning the area frantically, he couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. Cars were coming in both directions, people walking on the sidewalks minding their own business, and birds chirped from atop a lamppost. But he could feel something was amiss; or rather, something was _not_ amiss. For that brief moment in time, he thought he saw something that he hasn't seen since he was a child.

He thought he saw a spirit.

Huohu tries to shake off the chilling feeling, but the hairs on the back of his neck continued to stand up on end.

_Why? Why is it coming back?_ he thought, feeling both frustrated and afraid at the same time. _It was supposed to be over. Why?_

When he was old enough to be aware of his surroundings, Huohu found that he was able to sense things that no one else could. When he told his parents about his experiences, they simply brushed it off as wild imaginings. And he really thought that was to be the case; or rather, he _hoped_ that was the case. But he later found that it wasn't, for he gradually began doing more than just sensing the presence of the unseen.

He started seeing them.

At first, he saw things out of the corner of his eye. And then he started seeing shadows in places that shouldn't have shadows. Some moved, others stood perfectly still; he didn't know which was more terrifying. Then came the day when he met his deceased maternal grandparents. They had died when he was an infant so he never got to know either of them except from stories that his parents, aunts, and uncles told. It was the only spiritual encounter he ever had that didn't scare him. It was during that meeting when his grandparents told him that he had a special power, the ability to see the unseen. They told him to not be afraid of his gift, and that spirits are just people who weren't able to let go of their attachment to the world of the living. Despite their kind words, he was still terrified of what he saw.

That was, until the day his pet lizard died.

He was sad at first, remembering every memory he had with his beloved reptile. He thought he would never be happy ever again. Then, one day, he woke up to see the little lizard plopped contentedly upon his bed. Though he couldn't pet him and play with him like he could before, Huohu was happy to know that it was still with him, even if it was literally in spirit. Ever since that day, Huohu's lizard would sit on his shoulder and constantly remind him that, despite some of the more horrendous-looking spirits, there are those like it that aren't so menacing. Just like his grandparents told him, spirits are always around us; only those with the gift can see them.

However, soon after his twelfth birthday, Huohu stopped sensing and seeing spirits altogether. It was a little nerve-racking at first, to know that there were supposed to be spirits around but to not be able to tell that they were there. He began missing having his pet lizard always sitting on his shoulders and being able to talk to ghost children about how they died and the things they've seen. But as time passed, he began missing his gift less and less, until he thought of the entire experience as nothing more than a child's dream. With each passing year, he became more and more glad to not have the gift anymore, dismissing it as nothing more than an unpleasant curse.

But now it was back as if it never left. What was even more distressing was the lack of a presence on his right shoulder. If his curse did return, where was his beloved pet ghost? Has his powers really returned or is he just imagining things out of stress over Ling's disappearance?

Huohu shakes his head. No, he is just trying to find a way to cope with what's happening and imagining things. He was older and wiser now. That part of his childhood was gone and it was never coming back.

Placing a foot on a pedal, he continues his way to work. High atop a lamppost was the ghostly image of a lizard as it watched its former owner pedal away.

* * *

That evening, Huohu returns to his apartment to see that Tianchui has fallen asleep on his couch with Xiao'xin curled up on his stomach. He was alarmed at first to see someone in his apartment, and then he quickly remembers that Tianchui had come over earlier that morning to ask about Ling. He hears the sound of a man talking and notices that the television was still on. It looked like Tianchui fell asleep while watching something since the lights in the living room were still on.

Huohu walks over to the couch and gently nudges the man awake. Tianchui blinked a few times, initially unaware of where he was. Then he saw Huohu and began rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"Man, what time is it?" he mumbles as he sat up.

Xiao'xin let out a snort as he was abruptly awakened by the movement and hops onto the couch. Huohu checks his wristwatch and then looks back at the man.

"9:34"

Tianchui gave a little moan and looks out the window to see that it was indeed dark outside.

"Do you really want to go over there?" he asks in a tone that hoped the answer wasn't positive.

"You're going to have to go back eventually," said Huohu. And before Tianchui could say anything, he added. "And no, you can't live with me until Ling gets back."

Tianchui looks down dejectedly upon hearing his response. "Fine." He paused for a moment. "Do you think we could bring Xiao'xin? You know, just in case."

"In case of what?" inquired Huohu, raising an eyebrow.

"In case… something… that's not supposed to be there… is there…"said Tianchui, forcing the words as they came.

Remembering what happened when he went to work, Huohu gives the idea some thought.

"We won't need Xiao'xin because there's nothing there," he says at length. "You've been living with Ling and her strange interests for too long."

"Well, yeah, she's always had a thing for the paranormal," agreed Tianchui. "What was that one show she watched whenever she could back when you guys were in America? X Files, was it?"

"C'mon, let's go," said Huohu, grabbing Tianchui by the arm and heading to the door. "The sooner we get this over with, the better."


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** OMG, I'm so pissed with myself! Not because this chapter was excruciatingly hard to write or anything, but the fact that I accidentally deleted it while working on Chapter 4! (facepalm) Since I couldn't remember exactly what I wrote originally for this chapter, this is more or less an involuntary revision.

Which sucks because I really like the original.

* * *

**CHAPTER 3**

The lock clicked and cranked as the mechanisms within were manipulated by the direction of Tianchui's key. With a final clack, the door to his apartment slowly inches open. Tianchui peers into the pitch-black as if looking for something to jump out at him. Instead, he felt Huohu push him in from behind and the two men enter the apartment. Huohu had been to Tianchui and Ling's apartment before so he had a general knowledge of the layout and where things were. Feeling along the wall, he feels a little protrusion and flicks it upward. Immediately, the living room of the apartment was flooded with light, coating both men in its illumination.

"What were you expecting, a _jiangshi_?" exclaimed Huohu, sarcasm lining each and every word.

"Maybe," uttered Tianchui, closing the door and locking it. "I wouldn't be surprised. Ling tends to bring home the weirdest things."

"Like what?" Huohu wonders as he walked around.

"Well, _you_, for instance," joked Tianchui, motioning towards the other man.

"Allright, consider us even," Huohu admits as he heads to the shadowy hallway leading to both Tianchui and Ling's rooms.

Flicking the switch on the wall, the hallway was soon as lit up as the living room. There were three doors in the hallway: one straight ahead and the other two at the sides. The door on the right was opened halfway through, revealing the contents within. Judging from the whimsically colorful sign on the doorknob, Huohu could easily discern the open door led to Tianchui's room. Which meant the other door across the way was Ling's.

"Ling never closes her door completely," noted Tianchui as he leaned on the wall at the entry way of the hall. "She kept it open at least a few centimeters almost all the time. It was her way of telling me I'm always welcomed to enter no matter what she was doing. The only time she ever closed it was when she was changing."

Huohu inspects the door and turns to face Tianchui with a perplexed look on his face. "It's closed completely."

"I… had to close it," admitted the other man, scratching the back of his head nervously. "It was creeping me out to see it opened like that knowing full well she wasn't there."

With a nod to show that he understood, Huohu turns back to the door and wraps his hand around the knob. He took a deep breath, unsure of what was on the other side of the thick, white panel of wood. Maybe, just maybe, this was all a dream and that the breakup and this mysterious disappearance was nothing more than a huge joke concocted by Ling and her cousin to scare him. In his mind, he imagines himself opening the door to find Ling leaping at him from the darkness and hugging him tightly while saying "just kidding" or something to that effect. Despite the potential heart attack, at the very least, he could deal with that a lot better than the knowledge of Ling's disappearance.

The metal of the knob creaked as Huohu turns it and pushes open the door. Inside, the room was completely dark, though his eyes were able to discern the shape of a desk and a bed. Sliding his right hand along the wall, he finds the light switch and in the blink of an eye, the room was bathed in light. His heart nearly leapt when he saw there was not a soul in the room, while at the same time he hoped there would be.

_Ling is really gone, isn't she?_

Disappointed and downtrodden, Huohu enters the room with Tianchui following close behind. The room wasn't like your typical woman's room decorated with posters and all sorts of cutesy knick-knacks. Ling wasn't that kind of girl, which was quite evident by the weapon stand near her closet and a single wall-scroll she got at an American convention above the headboard of her bed. Aside from her desk, the rest of the room was very neat and tidy, evidence of the slight obsessive-compulsive disorder she acquired growing up with 2 rather messy sisters. Overall, it was a pretty modest room despite Ling having quite a fanaticism with Chinese weaponry, video games, and anime.

_At least she was an organized gamer_, though Huohu, staring at the bookcase near her bed with one shelf filled with video game cases neatly arranged in alphabetical order and grouped together according to series.

One shelf above had books on Chinese art and text as well as fictions of the fantasy and mystery genre. On another shelf below the video game shelf was her scrapbooks, a sort of memoir series with pictures from when she was an infant to her most current photos. Ling said it was the best way to chronicle her life and pass it on to her descendants as a time capsule of sorts. Huohu had considered doing the same for himself, but he doesn't have many pictures of himself past the age of 12 so his scrapbook series would only encompass one volume compared to Ling's four volumes and currently working on her fifth.

Next to the bookcase was Ling's weapon stand, holding her two sabers, a _jian_, a spear, and a staff; a link-chain sat on a pile near the spear, apparently collecting dust. Aside from the wooden stand, all of her weapons are made of metal, something Ling has always been particular about. It was hard work keeping them all from rusting, but Ling wouldn't have it any other way. She had always been of the sort that if one wishes to learn how to use weapons, one should train with real weapons, not flimsy _wushu_ copies. Huohu thought it was rather careless of her to begin her weapon training using actual weapons and not practice ones, but it was that kind of risky behavior that drew him to her in the first place. Huohu himself wasn't very proficient with any weapon besides the _jian_ and even with that he doesn't plan to use it as a means of self-defense as evident by his purchase of a practice _jian_ with a dull blade. Actually, he wasn't the one who bought it, Ling did. Although he thought it quite strange that she spent so much money to buy him a _jian_ made almost completely of silver.

_Then again, it __**was**__ an anniversary present_, he thought.

Huohu turns his attention to Ling's desk, which was littered with various journals, texts, and papers. Walking over, he starts looking at the handful of photos scattered about. Picking one up, he examines the photo of the entrance to some sort of old estate. The structure was something he recognized after reading many magazines depicting life in the countryside.

Tianchui came up beside him to take a look himself.

"Looks like your typical haunted house," he notes, a chill running down his spine though he didn't make evident his shuddering.

"Have you been there?" wonder Huohu.

"Never," answered Tianchui. "Or… maybe I have. It looks familiar."

"Ling has a lot of information on this place," said Huohu as he looks through the texts and notes. "Looks like she was really interested in it."

"Actually," began Tianchui as he stares at another photo. "I think we've been there once. I don't know why though. My memory's really fuzzy on the details. I just remember we were kids when we visited."

"An old family place maybe?" thought Huohu.

"It could've been," thought Tianchui. "But I seriously don't remember anything about the visit."

Just then, Huohu noticed a rectangular black box near the far corner of the desk. It turns out to be one of those old twin-lens reflect camera from the early 60s, this particular one being a Seagull brand as evident by the Chinese characters above the top-most lens. Strangely, this camera had a sports finder that works similarly to the more prominent single-lens camera of modern day. That meant that one could technically shoot photos using the default viewfinder on the top of the camera or the viewfinder on the back like a regular camera.

Very odd indeed.

"Ling was always interested in weird things," said Tianchui, looking at the camera. "She found that in an antique store one day and brought it home. Never saw her use it though so I don't know if it works or not."

"It's clean so she had been maintaining it at least," notes Huohu, picking up the camera to take a closer look.

He pops open the back to find that it was completely empty.

"Not surprised seeing as how not many people, if any, stock 120 or 127 film," said Tianchui. "And it'd be pretty expensive since they're such inefficient cameras anyhow. The only reason she'd use this piece of junk would be purely for fun."

For some reason, Huohu thought the term "fun" did not work with this camera. He associated it more with the word "dangerous," but couldn't see why.

"I think I'm going to take all of this stuff," he said after much thought. "Maybe I can figure out what's going on and find out where Ling went if I continue her research instead."

"Be my guest," said Tianchui rather gladly. "If she comes back, she can get mad at _you_ for taking her stuff."

"I think she'll be equally upset with you for not stopping me," smirked Huohu as he gathered up the texts and notes into a neat pile.

"True," sighed Tianchui, crossing his arms. He motions to the camera with his head. "Take that, too."

"Why?" wonder Huohu.

"Lately, I get the chills every time I look at it," admits the other man, moving his hands to his arms as if to warm himself up.

Huohu gave it some thought and felt that it would be best if he took the camera as well. He'd been having a nagging feeling ever since he laid eyes on that thing. Maybe it was a sign, but whether it was good or not bothered Huohu to no extent.

With everything packed up in the bookbag he brought with him, Huohu nods to Tianchui and the two men eagerly leave Ling's room. Once out in the living room, Tianchui broke the eerie silence.

"Could Xiao'xin come stay with me for a while?" he asks. "If not, I'm going to be coming over to your place on a daily basis."

"Look, there's nothing here to worry about," said Huohu. "But if it really bothers you that much, I'll go bring him over with his toys and food."

"Thanks," responded Tianchui, feeling as if the veil of anxiety that had been hanging over him was lifted, albeit slightly.

He walks Huohu to the door to let him out, but before the older man left completely, he spoke up one last time.

"By the way," began Tianchui. "Be careful, Huohu."

Unsure of what to make of that, Huohu hesitated before simply saying "okay" and out he went.


End file.
